APAC

Launching the world's best shopping centre

Leeds

Wanting to create the largest premium retail and leisure venue in the North of England, Hammerson saw the opportunity to extend the existing Victoria Quarter shopping arcade, and introduce the new luxury shopping centre Victoria Gate into Leeds City Centre. Built in an area which was in need of regeneration, Victoria Gate has played a key role in supporting the local community throughout its development.

The new 53,400m2 shopping destination moves Leeds up to third in the UK’s best place to shop retail rankings (Javelin), and has recently been named the world’s best shopping centre (MIPIM) proving that the £165 million investment is worth its weight in gold.

UK

E34%uplift in footfall from 2015 to 2016 in Victoria Quarter for the same period

THE CHALLENGE

The introduction of Victoria Gate was an exciting time for Hammerson and they wanted to ensure that the launch went with a bang! To complement the new sleek design of Victoria Gate, Hammerson knew they needed to refresh the existing Victoria Quarter arcade so that is exactly what they did, brought contractors in to revamp the arcade.

The challenge for Carat?

Ensure footfall and customer spend is maintained during a disruptive period for Victoria Quarter

Increase engagement with the existing Victoria Quarter brand

Increase awareness of new Victoria Gate shopping centre

Ensure share of voice within market is maintained

Launch Victoria, Leeds as the overarching brand for both Victoria Quarter and Victoria Gate

INSIGHT & STRATEGY

We knew we needed to be smart with our strategy to ensure Victoria, Leeds remained front of mind over the competitors, and of course to meet campaign objectives.

Hammerson had conducted a survey to gather data from in-centre customers and Mastercard spend data from their stores. By combining this data, they were able to track customers spending by mapping the demographics of those shopping in Victoria Quarter. Using this insight, we built maps of target areas for media execution, creating mini geo-targeting pockets to focus on.

Historically Victoria Quarter shoppers tend to come from out of town, drawing in customers from York and Harrogate, however due to competitor activity we knew we needed to step it up a gear within Leeds city centre.

Using CCS data, a multi-channel campaign was built using the media channels that our target audience would resonate most with; Out of Home (OOH), TV, Radio, Paid Social, Paid Search, Video, Mobile and Door Drop.

EXECUTION / SOLUTION / INNOVATION

To deliver a truly integrated campaign, we had to ensure that Victoria Gate was present at all key communication touchpoints across the Victoria catchment. Working with our key media partners we employed a multiplatform campaign across OOH, TV, Radio, Door Drop and Digital Media.

Using high impact digital OOH we incorporated a live count down feed to build up anticipation of the grand opening and utilised a multi messaging approach to deliver bespoke messages at certain times of the day.

We created the impression of a Leeds City centre takeover by tactically handpicking key OOH, special builds and ambient ad placements throughout the city and across Leeds Train Station. Essentially using our deployment tactically to make the advertising investment ‘feel’ bigger for a relatively limited launch budget.

A regional TV campaign was planned and activated to target high indexing channels against our target audience, with high impact spots chosen to again create standout and impact with ads featuring in centre breaks during super soap week for ITV, crucial for capturing an attentive audience. Radio adverts were also employed to support and enhance the digital and TV elements of the campaign, which just so happened to run alongside the John Lewis ad announcing the opening of their new flagship store at Victoria Gate, ultimately giving our campaign a boost.

Thanks to the insight gained by the MasterCard research we were able to recommend using TEAD’s, a premium digital media platform which targets the more affluent target audience. XaD mobile banners were also used as directional media to attract people to Victoria Gate from the city centre.

E34%uplift in footfall from 2015 to 2016 in Victoria Quarter for the same period

w25,000ad views on TEADS (premium video platform)With over 25,000 views, TEADS delivered great reach with extremely strong engagement with the Victoria, Leeds brand. Average view through rate for the platform is 10% and we delivered a fabulous 23%, ultimately increasing engagement.